Are you done with Covid? It's not done with you.
We get it. You're tired. You might even have been misled by Public Health leaders to think that things are all better now.
But they're not.
People are still getting sick - some for the nth time. People are still dying. Children are also being infected repeatedly. Adults and children are becoming disabled with Long Covid. You've seen all the 'help wanted' signs everywhere and the businesses with reduced hours because they can't find enough staff.
It's because of Covid. It's still here and it's not going to go away until we admit that it's still here and that we deal with it. Below are a set of resources that may help you understand that we all need to change our behaviour in order to tackle this crisis.
Long Covid
Long Covid is a debilitating syndrome very similar to Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It's estimated that between 10-15% of people who have Covid will develop it. Yes, even if it felt "mild." It prevents people from earning a living, from looking after their children, from living their lives.
- reference to TO star article
- link to Dr Ric's page
- link to Long Covid Awareness page
Covid and Children
We were told that "children don't get Covid". We were told "children don't transmit Covid". (add links to DBH video clips here? ) We were told "every hour spent in school is safer than an hour spent at home". We were told "even if they get Covid, kids don't get very sick". All of that is untrue.
- link to Dr. Rae Duncan's video/our page
- link to studies showing transmission in schools
- link to DBH's study showing kids were getting sick
- link to showing how school transmission has been prevented by masks & clean air
Aerosol Transmission (this is actually a 'bright spot' because understanding this helps us find a way out of this situation)
Covid, like all viruses with a respiratory infection vector, transmits through aerosols (I know there's a paper for this to link to). We prevent and reduce transmission by reducing the viral particles we breathe in and those infected people breathe out. There are some very straightforward ways to do this that we could implement widely and have a massive positive impact on the well-being of our population. (Remember that the same filtration mechanisms, that can remove viruses from being breathed in, can remove allergens (hello, pollen season, anyone?) and other harmful particulate matter (wearing an N95 during 'smoke fire season' keeps you healthier and safer).
- link to John Snow video/page (embed?)
- link to clean air stars
- link to Joey Fox's "It's Airborne"
- link to the private members bills in NB/ON and the places in the US doing the same. And the clean air forum in AU.
We've all heard "we have the tools" but most of the tools they are referring to are gone now. We don't have PCR tests available anymore, free rapid tests will soon be gone, and vaccine boosters are being seriously restricted even if their protection has long disappeared. BC has the most restrictive access to Paxlovid of any province.
There's good news too:
We have *other* tools that work, and that work broadly. Masks (better still N95 and KN95), HEPA filtration units, Corsi-Rosenthal (DIY) boxes, ventilation, and ultraviolet disinfection tools work on ALL airborne diseases (they're variant-proof!) AND they work to protect us from other things that it's bad for us to breather in! We should all be working to make sure we all have clean air to breathe (support a BC MLA private member's bill for regulating indoor air quality strandards and modifying the BC Building Code here)
Immune System Damage
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Excess Deaths
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